In Between Posts, June 3, 2012

My girlfriend and I got away for a while and spent the weekend in Kansas City. It’s the first time I’ve been and it’s a lot to take in in the span of a Thursday-Sunday trip. We didn’t have much time for anything when we arrived Thursday, but we did shop a little at a nearby, fancy, outlet mall. We kicked things off Friday by visiting the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Both were free, although the former was very brief – a half hour to take everything in. The latter was enormous, taking us at least two hours and we honestly skimmed through it. Their exhibits were varied and it seemed that they had a little of everything; from medieval suits of armor to Asian art, classical christian art to enormous outdoor pieces and everything in between.

One of my favorite pieces at either museum was the enormous shuttlecocks lying around the grounds of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

That evening, the Kansas City Royals were playing the Oakland Athletics and we watched the Royals win a relatively event-less 2-0 game. Kaufmann Stadium was very nice and I especially liked the museum they had on-site. Something that surprised was the location of the Kansas City Chiefs stadium that shared the same parking lot. It was fascinating to see two giant stadiums right next to each other.

Kaufmann Stadium from the highway. The large KC monolith is a giant jumbotron in the shape of the team’s logo.

Saturday we visited the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial. Originally built in 1921, the Liberty Memorial is a giant pillar with a lookout tower and surrounding architecture. What I really dug was the museum underneath the memorial. Built in 2006, the National World War I Museum is one of the most prestigious museums I’ve ever been to. That makes sense though as this is the nation’s official WWI museum. Later that day, we visited Worlds of Fun where we rode a couple of roller coasters until I couldn’t take it anymore. The first one was quite short, but it went in a couple of loops, forwards and backwards. We rode a wooden one too and the only frightening thing about it was the first hill, beyond that it was cake.

Me, in comparison to the Liberty Memorial.

Besides all the sights we saw, we did a good deal of shopping and lots of eating. We haven’t left yet, and we’re doing to do a little more of both before we’re done with the city, but I believe we’re done sightseeing. I had a fantastic time and definitely want to come back. There are still many museums I’d like to see and the town is just really cool. By the way, how can I forget the BBQ? We ate a renowned restaurant that resides in a gas station. That doesn’t sound appealing at first, but Oklahoma Joe’s is continually featured in eatery guides and TV shows. It was like a twenty minute wait in line and it was the type of place that as soon as a table opened up, my girlfriend had to hold it for us while I made the order, otherwise, we wouldn’t be sitting inside and eating. All in all, I’m glad we decided to go.

4 thoughts on “In Between Posts, June 3, 2012”

Sounds like a fun trip! I have always wanted to take a road trip down to KC just to go to their ballpark. One of my dreams is to visit every MLB stadium in the country. It’s a slow work in progress — I think I’m at 6/30 — but someday I’ll hit all of ’em. 😀